Why The Democrats’ Post-2024 Autopsy MISSED The Point Entirely | Chuck Todd Politics Podcast

Added: 2026-05-31

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[00:00:11]I should pivot here a little bit to the DNC autopsy and what it was and what it wasn't. I mean, my goodness, it is first of all, Ken Martin, talk about somebody who's just has no um has no um ability to lead this party, right? He's the wrong person for this job. Um way in over his head. Um I mean, you know, think about it this way. He said, "Hey, this autopsy is terrible.

[00:00:48]It's not going to be helpful, so I'm not going to release it." He gets pressured into doing it. 3 weeks after he says he's never going to release it. So, he folds. And turns out he's right. This is like a ridiculous autopsy. It's a ridiculous document that actually dances around the party's problems. Doesn't actually address the party's problems, which are simply the country thinks it's too liberal, right? They just come up with dancing around it and euphemisms.

[00:01:12]Well, culturally out of touch and this out of touch. You know, the document is a classic document that you see all the time where uh uh in politics where you never it's, you know, the ingredients weren't wrong. It was the messaging.

[00:01:26]It's always the messaging. Oh, no, no, no. We had great ideas. People love our ideas. We just don't know how to sell them. No, sometimes the dogs don't like the dog food, you know. And we've we're wa we've seen a Liberal party fix itself to create a durable larger majority. The Canadians, the Liberal Party drop some of its far-left aspects to thing, grew its party. It's now got a more durable governing majority under Mark Carney, and the conservatives look further away from power than ever before.

[00:02:02]He moved the party from the left closer to the center.

[00:02:08]It's it's you know that's what makes this autopsy ridiculous is it refuses to address the obvious issue in the room which is the party's perception is too liberal. The consultants are too liberal. The candidates are too liberal. There's a litmus test. like I you know um I had a member of Congress on my newsphere show this past weekend um Suas uh Subramanium uh he's a Democratic member of Congress from Northern Virginia and he described it. I said what's the party's problem?

[00:02:40]He says it looks like we, you know, he says we we're like a country club with a bouncer and only certain people are allowed in and there's these purity tests which I think is is is accurate.

[00:02:48]Still dances around the issue, right? And it does in and I think this is the basic debate. Do do center-left people have to compromise with progressives or do progressives have to compromise with the moderates?

[00:03:06]And now progressives will argue they're always compromising with the moderates.

[00:03:09]They haven't gotten their candidate, right? It's the same issue we heard from the far right and the Republican party for a long time. And hey, that's why they're they're holding on to Trump for dear life because this is the last time that wing of the party's ever going to be dominant, right? You're going to see the more centerright part of the party try to re rest control as soon as Trump's out of there.

[00:03:29]And it's a similar fight. Now, I've told you I think that Democrats that the progressives have a math problem. Their base is just not as big as the Republican base, which means you need more moderates to win general elections.

[00:03:40]And moderates are uncomfortable with some of the progressive stances, right?

[00:03:43]Moderates ha the progressives have to come closer to the moderates because they've not yet persuaded enough moderates to come close to them.

[00:03:52]Now, I'm not sure there's an acceptance of that belief. Some of you progressives that are listen listeners to my podcast, um I would love to hear hear some push back on this. um you know me I will happily um discuss it in a in a Q&A section um but that's sort of where I see it but it doesn't matter right this autopsy didn't even attempt to confront it could have done it from both ways so is the party got to you know need to broaden its appeal is it to burden here sort of just speak English right address the issues head on um but it was it was it was dancing around thing and and it was, you know, this is what happens when you when you're trying to not offend anybody. You you um in some ways you offend everybody, right? Because you don't quite get it right. And and that's sort of my take on this. Um it's interesting that they chose to use gubernatorial races in a presidential year as counterpoints. And I just think that that that is somehow missing not not seeing the forest through the trees.

[00:05:01]You know, just because you win Washington Gov and North Carolina gov.

[00:05:06]um doesn't mean that you somehow are in better shape than the pre you know it that you know these races you know turnout is decided by the presidential race in these places and there's no credit in the whole North Carolina Washington situation you had fairly popular incumbents that were leaving so it's easy for a party to win a another term as governor if the governor who's leaving is fairly popular.

[00:05:38]So, it it is it was um I don't think they quite got it there.

[00:05:46]It is interesting that they admitted um and this to me is one of the things that they didn't fully appreciate, which is the only reason they won those Senate races in the swing presidential swing states is because a bunch of Trump voters didn't vote in the rest of the Trump. They came in, they're shotgun Trump voters. They vote Trump and then they leave. Essentially, Alyssa Slotkin, you know, lost better, right? Um um but there were fewer voters in her race than there were in the presidential race. So um I don't think there's a it, you know, I think it in that sense I think they will blow up the mindset that somehow Democrat Senate candidates ran better. I think what it turns out, you know, Trump created a movement that was about Trump and he's never been able to get it helpful to the rest of the Republican party. Sure. And and and there's primaries, but it it has never helped down the ballot too much. Though House Republicans are convinced that without Trump, they couldn't they couldn't get the base out. But it's not like the base comes out when Trump's not on the ballot.

[00:06:58]Uh, and it turns out it's not like these voters end up end up helping if they don't actually vote down the ballot.

[00:07:06]They only come in and support Trump and they skip the Senate race and they skip the House races and they keep going down the ballot. So, but anyway, this is a this was a damned if you do, damned if you don't um situation.

[00:07:20]Um, it is, you know, when the report tries so hard, they didn't want to take direct shots at Biden. They didn't want to take direct shots at Harris. They didn't want to take direct shots at the left. They didn't want to take direct shots at at the business community, right? So, it was it's a mely mouth bath uh mess um that sort of misses the forest through the trees.

[00:07:46]And you know what what is not clear is you know I wanted to see um I was hoping that they would have this massive survey of Democrats you know of voters who voted for Biden and then voted for Trump and and learned something from it. So I don't think this autopsy was taken very seriously. I think this was done because a whole bunch of people said there should it should be done, but I don't think it was really well thought out. Um, and they didn't it didn't attempt to actually come up with its own research on this. So, look, ultimately the future of the Democratic Party is not going to be decided by the DNC, although they probably need a they I look, I I don't know Ken Martin. Um, he's clearly not built for this job. Not every state most state party chairs.

[00:08:36]This is a different This isn't running a state party. This is a different type of job. And I think they need a different type of, you know, they probably need somebody who's who's who's familiar with donors. They kind of need what they've, you know, and frankly they need somebody like a more modern version of Terry McAuliff.

[00:08:56]Um, somebody who's a party cheerleader who knows how knows how to keep donors in the fold. Because right now, you know, the the the National Party committees are just moneyaundering operations. They're just legalized moneyaundering operations. But if you don't have money coming through, then you can't even launder, right? You can't spit it out in the different directions.

[00:09:13]And so the the DNC, you know, it's completely in it's completely paralyzed at the moment. Donors don't want to give it money because they don't trust the leadership. So they probably need a new leader. I don't think this is Ken Martin's fault, per se. You know, I come back ultimately, it's Schumer and Jeff, right? they're the leaders of this party. And then you throw in Pelosi in some ways, you know, has some soft power still. Um they have, you know, they could have taken a little more control of this just like they, you know, blew it with Andrew Cuomo in New York. I, you know, you know, some of this stuff they blew it and how they handled Biden, right? So, um, you know, right now I think all the frustrations of of weak Democratic leadership is being uh tossed at Ken Martin. Ken Martin is just sort of the the punching bag, but it's not, you know, he's the punching bag instead of getting mad at the at at Biden, Harris, Schumer, Jeffre, Pelosi, right? God forbid any of those take a hit. So, um, the good news for the Democrats is they they they don't need to be that unified to have success in the midterms.

[00:10:22]The bad news for them is, you know, you're going to have 20 autopsies um running around um masked as presidential campaigns in 27, meaning you're going to have different theories of the case of what the party should be.

[00:10:36]And ultimately, the voters are going to decide, Democratic primary voters are going to decide the direction of the Democratic party. And you know what?

[00:10:43]Just like Republican primary voters decided, as much as the establishment wanted to go one direction, they kept saying, "No, we want to go Trump's direction. We want to try that. So, we're going to find out. The party is the the party primary voters are ultimately going to tell us.

[00:10:58]Give the progressives, let them try to do this uh or follow the Mark Carney approach.

[00:11:06]That in some ways probably is what'll animate uh the Democratic Party debate over the next uh couple of cycles. This episode of the Chuck Todd podcast is brought to you by Soul. So, if you love that end of the day unwind but hate the hangover, Souls Out of Office is for you. These sparkling THC drinks and gummies give you the same relaxed social feeling without the alcohol, without the calories, and without the crash. Soul is a wellness brand that believes feeling good should be fun and easy. Soul specializes in delicious hemp derived THC and CBD products designed to boost your mood and help you unwind. Their bestselling out of office gummies were designed to provide a mild relaxing buzz, boost your mood, and enhance creativity and relaxation. With five different strengths, you can tailor the dose to fit your vibe. So also has a variety of products specifically designed to help you get a better night's rest, including their top selling sleepy gummies. a fan favorite for deep reststerous sleep. Look, I have made no secret I am a believer in uh in this stuff in cannabis and hemp derived.

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